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Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix and Yeast Bread Recipe

Keto Yeast Bread made with Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Bread Mix

Delicious keto bread that isn't heavy, dense, or crumbly!

When I began my successful keto diet journey in 2019, Maya Krampf's popular Wholesome Yum website and The Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Cookbook (which I have recommended in my Keto Gift Guide and other posts here on Review This Reviews) quickly became two of my go-to resources for quick and easy, healthy keto recipes and reliable information about the ketogenic approach to eating. Maya also has developed a line of high quality, low carb, gluten free, keto food products made with clean ingredients (including her excellent Besti keto-friendly sweeteners), and new products continue to be added to her Wholesome Yum Foods online shop.

The Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix that launched on December 21, 2020 is one of Maya's newest products. I think it's also one of her best!

A few days ago, she also published a new Keto Yeast Bread Recipe for this bread mix that delivers even more impressive and delicious results. I’m excited to share my in-depth product review of this excellent Wholesome Yum mix and compare the differences in between the loaves I've made with original recipe and the new keto yeast bread recipe.

Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Bread Mix package

This keto bread mix has all the pre-measured dry ingredients for a delicious, fresh-baked loaf

Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix, Original Recipe (No Yeast)

The directions currently printed on the bag require just three ingredients in addition to the packaged mix: 6 tablespoons of butter, 4 large eggs, and 3/4 cup (6 ounces) of unsweetened almond milk.

You can replace the almond milk with a different keto-friendly milk, if you wish.

Line the Loaf Pan With Baking Parchment Paper

The recipe calls for the prepared bread mix to be baked in an 8" x 4" loaf pan lined with baking parchment paper, with the parchment paper overhanging at least the two long sides of the pan.

However, the 8.5" x 4.5" OXO Good Grips Non-Stick Pro Loaf Pan I have been using (see my product review) has worked fine.

Parchment paper lined loaf pan with box of baking parchment and scissors

Make sure the parchment paper overhangs the long sides of the pan

I have been lining the pan with unbleached If You Care Parchment Baking Paper, which is chlorine-free and compostable. It's also silicone coated, and nothing sticks to it!

For environmental reasons, the box doesn't have a serrated metal cutting strip. Since the larger, softer cardboard "teeth" don't cut as cleanly as the metal ones, I just use scissors to trim the a sheet of the desired length.

Allow Time to Bring the Ingredients to Room Temperature

All the ingredients should be at room temperature when make the keto bread dough/batter.

Note: Although there is an asterisked line to this effect in the printed directions on the bag, it's easy to miss, not only because the very small type is hard to read, but also because there are no corresponding asterisks attached to the individual ingredients. (A single asterisk with no corresponding reference is meaningless.) It would be helpful if this were fixed during the next packaging print run.

When a recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, they should be at approximately 70 °F (21 °C), with the exception of butter. Room temperature butter should be a bit cooler, roughly 65 °F (18 °C). It has reached the correct temperature when it is still a bit cool to the touch and retains its shape, but has softened enough to leave an indentation when pressed with a fingertip.

Ingredients to make Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Bread Mix: bag of mix, 6 tablespoons of butter, 4 eggs, and 3/4 cup almond milk

One bag of mix + butter, eggs, and almond milk = quick and easy keto bread!

Why Using Room Temperature Ingredients Matters When Making The Keto Bread Mix Batter

Using room temperature butter, eggs, and almond milk allows the butter to cream properly and the eggs and butter to be fully incorporated into the creamed butter, so there are no remaining clumps of butter after the dry ingredients in the Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix are added.

Conversely, using ingredients that are too warm or too cold will likely produce less-than-optimal results.

When I tried the Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix for the first time this January, the New England winter meant that our north-facing kitchen (with its large expanse of windows) was quite chilly. As a result, even after sitting out on the counter for a couple of hours, my "room temperature" eggs, and almond milk were much cooler than 70 °F (21 °C), and even my butter was colder than 65 °F (18 °C) and had very little "give" when pressed with a fingertip.

As a result, even after being creamed at high speed with my trusty KitchenAid mixer for for nearly 15 minutes, the butter never softened fully, and when I added the eggs and almond milk to it, they wouldn't incorporate smoothly, no matter how long I beat the mixture.

You can see in following photo that the first batch of keto bread dough/batter didn't come together as smoothly as it should and would have if my kitchen hadn't been so chilly.

Bread dough in parchment paper lined loaf pan

A cold kitchen made my butter a bit uncooperative!

In retrospect, I could have put the unshelled, room temperature eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5–10 minutes and warmed the almond milk gently on the stovetop or in the microwave. However, the butter still would have been a problem, since using any form of added heat to soften butter without melting it is a tricky proposition.

The Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix Recipe Is Pretty Forgiving

Despite my inability to bring the ingredients to "recipe" room temperature, and the fact that we currently have only a tabletop oven (our built-in double oven died a few years ago), the loaf baked quite nicely.

Baked easy keto bread mix loaf in pan on rack

The first loaf I made with this keto bread mix turned out well, even with the too-cool ingredients

Making low carb, gluten-free bread with Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix was easy. The hard part was waiting until the next day, as the package directions recommend, before slicing into the loaf so I could taste it!

Baked keto bread loaf cut in half on cutting board with bread knife

A lighter, less dense texture than most keto bread

Although it is possible to find low carb bread recipes that don't contain almond flour, most of them do. Ground almonds are heavier than grain flours, lack gluten for structure, and interact differently with leavening agents. As a result, most loaves made from a keto bread recipe are pretty dense, and tend to crumble easily.

So, when I cut into the loaf I made with the Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix, I was very pleased to see small air pockets, indicating a somewhat lighter, less dense texture than most low carb bread made with almond flour. (You can see the air pockets better in the close-up photo of my half-sandwich.)

Not only did it make great toast, it also was less crumbly than most other keto-friendly almond flour breads, which allowed me to make a sandwich that didn't fall apart as soon as I bit into it!

Half a sandwich made with keto bread, keto jam, and keto chocolate hazelnut spread

My sweet half-sandwich on keto bread made with the Wholesome Yum mix
(Note: For scale, this is a salad plate.)

After making a great slice of toast, the next thing I tried was a sandwich. I had just received my order of keto-friendly Good Good sweet raspberry jam (which is currently out of stock, but other flavors are available, including Good Good Sweet Blueberry Jam) and ChocZero Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (a keto diet friendly alternative to Nutella), so I decided to cut a slice in half and make myself a raspberry-chocolate hazelnut half-sandwich. (Hey, don't knock it until you try it! I like to think of it as a 21st-century update to the Fluffernutter, a lunchbox favorite back in the 1960s, when I was a kid, that I can't imagine eating today.)

I was able to eat my half-sandwich without the bread crumbling or breaking, which was a major improvement over most other keto bread recipes or mixes I had tried.

The New Keto Yeast Bread Recipe Makes an Even Better Low Carb Loaf

Even though I was pleased with the results I was getting from Maya's new keto bread mix and had already begun to write a product review of it for Review This Reviews, I was extremely excited by her revelation last month in one of the Wholesome Yum Facebook groups I belong to that she had been working on a keto yeast bread recipe for the new mix and thought she was close to perfecting it.

I knew that adding yeast to the batter/dough would result in a taller loaf with a lighter, airier, more sponge-like texture and might also give the bread some of the flavor characteristics of conventional yeast breads.

I decided to hold off on my product review of the bread mix until the new recipe had been published, so I could compare it to the original and confirm or correct my assumptions about the effects of adding yeast to the batter.

Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Bread Mix and other ingredients for the keto yeast bread recipe

Feeding the yeast with inulin allows this keto yeast bread recipe to be 100% sugar free

The Yeast Bread Version of the Recipe Adds Two Ingredients

Active Dry Yeast

You can use any brand of active dry yeast, such as Fleischmann's or Red Star. I decided to order my favorite from my BK (before keto) baking, SAF-Instant Premium Yeast - Red, which is widely used by professional bakers and consistently produces superior results with any type of bread, pizza, croissant, or other unsweetened doughs.

I discovered the red SAF-Instant Premium Yeast many years ago on the King Arthur Baking website (a reliable source of baking expertise and a go-to resource for baking enthusiasts). The fact that it's the yeast they use most often in their test kitchens was a good enough endorsement for me!

In addition to improving bread dough baking results, a 1-pound vacuum-sealed bag/brick of SAF-instant yeast ends up costing much, much less per use than the 4-ounce jars or strips of three individual packets of active dry yeast sold in supermarkets.

I keep mine in the freezer in an airtight container, where it remains good for years, and unopened packages have a two-year shelf life.

Tip: If you're not following a low carb or keto diet, use SAF-Instant Premium Yeast - Gold, rather than the one in the red package, for making conventional sweet dough recipes.

Inulin Powder

In this recipe, the active dry yeast is fed with powdered inulin, a soluble fiber and prebiotic, instead of the sugar or other high glycemic index sweeteners that recipes typically used for that purpose.

I was in such a rush to order inulin powder for this recipe that I inadvertently ordered a huge 2.2-pound bag of it on Amazon (with free Amazon Prime delivery)! However, since it you need only one teaspoon of it per 2¼ teaspoons (or one packet) of active dry yeast, I recommend buying a smaller package, such as this 8-ounce bag of 100% pure inulin powder that is made in the USA (in Utah) from non-GMO Jerusalem artichokes, sometimes called sunchokes.

Wholesome Yum Keto Yeast Bread Recipe

To make the keto yeast bread recipe, you start by mixing the batter according to the original recipe, then fold in active dry yeast bloomed in lukewarm water mixed with inulin powder, and set the covered yeast batter aside in a warm spot to proof. After the yeast bread batter/dough has been allowed to rise for an hour, it is transferred to the parchment-line loaf pan and baked at the same temperature, and for the same length of time, as the original recipe. And, like the original recipe, the baked loaf should be removed to a cooling rack and left until it has cooled completely (overnight, if possible) before you slice into it.

Here are the ingredients, tools, supplies, and equipment you will need to make Maya's new keto yeast bread recipe.

Ingredients:

2¼ teaspoons (or 1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup (59 ml) lukewarm water, 105–115 °F (41–46 °C)
1 teaspoon of inulin powder *
1 bag Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix
6 tablespoons butter **
4 large eggs ** (not medium, extra-large, or jumbo size)
3/4 cup (6 fl. oz.) unsweetened almond milk ** ***

Tools, Supplies, and Equipment:

A hand mixer or stand mixer
A large mixing bowl
A rubber scraper (to scrape the bowl and beaters)
Plastic wrap (to cover the bowl of prepared yeast dough before setting it aside to proof/rise) ****
An 8" x 4" loaf pan
Baking parchment paper to line the pan (I highly recommend using unbleached baking parchment)
A cooling rack

* The inulin powder is a prebiotic fiber that is used in this recipe to feed the yeast. It is a keto-friendly alternative to feeding the yeast with sugar, honey, or other high-glycemic sweeteners that can elevate your blood glucose and insulin levels. If you follow a strict sugar-free or keto diet and want to ensure that your keto bread is absolutely sugar free, the inulin in this recipe is an essential ingredient that cannot be substituted. However, for people whose dietary requirements and preferences are less strict, the recipe also offers the option to replace the teaspoon of inulin powder with a teaspoon of coconut sugar.

** At room temperature

*** Use plain, unsweetened almond milk for this recipe. Unless the package specifically says "unsweetened almond milk," assume it contains added sugar, and is not suitable for a low carb, sugar-free, or keto diet.

**** I recommend biodegradable, reusable beeswax food wrap as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to disposable plastic wrap (aka cling film). It's available either precut or in rolled sheets that you can cut to size, as needed. Although I own and use both types, I'd suggest buying an uncut roll to ensure that you'll have a large enough piece to cover your large mixing bowl while the keto bread batter is proofing.

Directions:

Follow Maya's full Keto Yeast Bread Recipe on Wholesome Yum, which provides not only step-by-step directions with photos, but also helpful tips, refrigerator and freezer storage instructions, and an FAQ that answers questions such as as whether yeast and inulin are keto-friendly ingredients.

This Keto Yeast Bread Recipe Turned Out Even Better The Second Time!

Update 4/8/21: Last weekend, we finally had a warm-ish spring day here in New England (a "balmy" 58 degrees Fahrenheit, lol!). I had just finished the last slice from my first loaf, and hoped that my room temperature eggs, butter and nut milk would be warmer and more cooperative this time. Indeed, they were! I was able to get the butter to cream properly, so it was nicely pale and fluffy. And the eggs and nut milk (I used macadamia nut milk this time) were fully incorporated into the creamed butter, so there were no large lumps of butter in my yeast bread batter, which made it much easier to smooth the top after transferring it to the parchment paper-lined loaf pan.

Second loaf of keto yeast bread on cutting board

My second keto yeast bread loaf

Comparing Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix Original and Keto Yeast Bread Recipes

Height

When I followed the original Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix recipe printed on the bag, the top of the baked loaf remained lower than the rim of the baking pan.

Baked keto bread loaf in pan, made with recipe on bag of mix

The basic recipe without yeast produces a shorter loaf

However, when I followed the new keto yeast bread recipe, the batter's volume increased considerably as it proofed, which produced a baked loaf that was taller than baking pan.

Taller loaf in pan, made with keto yeast bread recipe

Adding yeast to the original batter recipe produces a larger, taller loaf that rises above the pan rim

Size and Texture

The recipe printed on the bag produced slices that were slightly larger, and had more air pockets and a lighter texture, than typical keto breads.

Sliced Wholesome Yum low carb keto bread

As you can see, the slices of this loaf, which was made with the Wholesome Yum Keto Yeast Bread Recipe, were significantly larger and had many more air pockets and and an even lighter texture vs. those cut from previous loaf made with the original Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix recipe.

Sliced Wholesome Yum keto yeast bread loaf

Time and Effort

The time it takes to bloom the yeast and fold it into the prepared batter is minimal.

However, the yeasted dough also needs to be covered and set aside to proof before it is transferred to the parchment paper-lined pan, which add 60 minutes to the total time, start-to-finish.

On the other hand, since the batter doesn't need to be monitored while it's proofing, that time can be spent elsewhere, on other activities.

Bottom Line

Unless I'm pressed for time or can't start baking until later in the day, I consider the superior loaf produced with Maya's new Wholesome Yum Keto Yeast Bread Recipe well worth the minimal additional effort and the one-hour delay while the batter is proofing.

However, even without the addition of yeast, the Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix is a convenient, time-saving, and delicious option for making freshly baked, keto-friendly bread.

Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix and Yeast Bread Recipe by Margaret Schindel

Posts About My Keto Diet Journey

My First Year on The Keto Diet

Preparing to Succeed on the Keto Diet, Part One

Preparing to Succeed on the Keto Diet, Part Two

Low Carb Muffins & Cupcakes: Treats to Enjoy on a Keto Diet

Low Carb Keto Chocolate Yogurt Granola Chip Pudding Recipe

Good Dee’s Keto Cookie Low Carb Baking Mix Review

Hamama Microgreens Growing Kit Review & Success Tips

My Favorite Hamama Microgreens Seed Quilt Accessories

Keto Cheddar Cheese Biscuits With Chives Recipe

The Ultimate Keto Hot Chocolate Recipe

The Best Low Carb Keto Gift Ideas: Keto Gift Guide

The Best Low Carb Keto Cinnamon Muffins

Wholesome Yum Keto Bread Mix and Yeast Bread Recipe

The Good Chocolate 100% Organic No Sugar Dark Chocolate Review

The Best Advice to Maintain Your Keto Diet Weight Loss

My New Irresistibly Delicious Keto Cheese Crackers Recipe

Luscious Low Carb Keto Triple Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies Recipe

Quick & Easy Livlo Blueberry Scones Keto Baking Mix Review

Snack Better With The Best Healthy Keto Cookie Dough Bites

The Best Quick and Easy Low Carb Keto Pizza Recipe

The Best Quick and Easy Low Carb Keto Shortcake Cupcakes Recipe

Comparing the Best Keto-Friendly Chocolate Hazelnut Spreads - No Added Sugars

The Best Low Carb Keto Sandwich and Burger Buns Mix

Blueberry Biscuit Scones — New, Easy, Low Carb Keto Recipe

The Best Keto Pizza Crust Mix With 0 Net Carbs

An Unusual, Delicious Strawberry Chocolate Tea With 0 Calories

Delicious Sugar-Free Keto Cookies That OREO Fans Will Love

Healthy Pistachio Cherry Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cereal Treats Recipe

Easy, Decadent, High Protein, Sugar-Free Rocky Road Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

The Best Quick & Easy Low Carb Sausage and Ricotta Calzones

How to Make Refreshing Vanilla Italian Soda (With or Without Cream)

Reviews of the Keto Diet by Barbara C. (aka Brite-Ideas)

My Personal Keto Testimonial

How I Stayed Committed to the Ketogenic Way of Eating

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Battery Daddy Organizer

The Battery Daddy Organizer Reviewed

When my cousin first told me about this battery daddy organizer, I thought, do I really need one of these? But after thinking about it for a while I did need a place to store and organize all my batteries.

I realized there are so many gadgets around the house that need batteries. Television and game remotes, flashlights, toys that the kids play with, smoke alarms, and so many more.

Whenever we needed batteries for something it was always a mad dash to the closet to see if we had any available. We had batteries all over the house, closets, drawers, and shelves down in the basement.

I think that AA batteries are the most popular, but then whenever we needed AAA, we never seemed to have them on hand. Then there are the 9-Volt batteries that are most popular in smoke alarms, forget about it because I never had those in the house.

The Battery Daddy Storage System Front Side Stores:

22 AAs

70 AAAs

10 Cs

8 Ds

12 Button Cells

The backside will store 54 more AAs and 2 more AAAs. Oh, and by the way, the battery daddy also comes with a battery tester that will display Good, Low, or Replace.

This really comes in handy for those batteries you have laying around the house. So many times, I have picked up a battery, looked at it, and then I ask Fran, are these any good?

I know what you are thinking why do need that many batteries? Well, if you are like me you really do not need that many batteries. You do not have to fill the case to capacity, just have enough of every type of battery that you use around the house.

Besides, batteries are expensive I think if you were to fill this case with batteries you may have to take out a loan.

The other thing that I thought of, is how long do batteries last in storage? I did not know so I looked it up and found that most batteries will last 5 to 10 years in storage. Batteries have an expiration date printed on the battery. And you will still get battery life from them after that date.

Now I have all my batteries in one place and the battery daddy easily fits in a drawer or on a shelf. I do not have to worry if I have the right battery for a gadget because I know that I do.

Find more Product Reviews here: ReviewThisProductReviews.com

Ontel Battery Daddy 180 Battery Organizer and Storage Case with Tester, 1 CountCheck the Price

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Monday, March 22, 2021

Ribbit! Froggy Voice App Reviewed

Whose ribbit is that? I found 'that' a question which frequently comes to mind when listening to the chirps, ribbits, boinks, jingles, peeps, trills and croaks calling from a pond, wetland or even your backyard at night.

Why Are Frogs & Toads So Valuable To Our Ecosystem

These peeps, chirps and ribbits are vital to the health of the wetlands, ponds/lakes, marshes, vernal ponds. But the larger picture is the direct relation of the health of frogs and toads to the health of the ecosystem and stormwater management in this area.

Frogs and toads are indicator species. Sensitive to changes in the environment, the health of these species are indicators of the health of our ecosystem. That's the thumbnail! But oh so much more goes into why It Is Not Easy Being Green.

Froggy Voice is an app designed to help you distinguish the calls of each species specifically for the species in the River Rouge Watershed and the annual Frog & Toad Survey. I learned about this app at the Frog & Toad Survey Workshops by the Friends Of The Rouge to train volunteers to participate in their annual Frog & Toad Survey.

This hyper local app is a practical and purposeful tool for the surveyors as well as an educational tool for anyone interested in learning how to distinguish the calls of frogs and toads and appreciate their contribution to a healthy ecosystem.

Practical App

Form, function and design seamlessly meet to solve exactly what the user asks in a one stop app. No need to google your question as Froggy Voice already knows why you are there, what you need, what you want and provides the answers all on one screen.

The Frog & Toad Survey is an annual survey to assess the health of the frogs and toads in the Rouge Watershed. Briefly a watershed is an area that drains into a river. In my area the Rouge River watershed is 467 square miles which drains into the Detroit River. This is miles and miles of high density urban development intermingled within lakes, rivers, marshes and wetlands.

It can be overwhelming for a novice surveyor to distinguish the calls of the frogs and toads whether in practice or during an on site survey. Froggy Voice was designed to help the novice and experienced surveyors while being a fun educational tool.

For novice surveyors Froggy Voice helps accentuate the training to assist new surveyors of the nuances of the calls of each species. The app contains 12 frog calls and 2 toad calls with the caveat this app is specifically designed for species found in the River Rouge Watershed.

For experienced surveyors the app is a helpful reminder of the calls of the frogs and toads found in the watershed. The annual frog and toad survey season is short and occurs March through June in my area.

Multicaller Function

For both the novice and experienced surveyors the Multicaller function is extremely helpful to distinguish the 'who is who' when hearing frog calls from different species simultaneously.

A virtual mix and match of frog sounds can be accomplished in a click of the mouse. The user simply clicks the icons of the desired frog species to hear the combination of frog calls. An invaluable feature for on site surveying when you hear multiple frog calls to ensure accuracy for your survey.

Responsiveness

Froggy Voice is a responsive app which can be accessed via desktop or mobile. I have used the app on desktop, iOS mobile and android devices and found the app performs equally across all platforms.

Last weekend my survey partner and I headed out to our survey area and as novices loved the ability to have the mobile version of the app on our phones. So easy, so convenient and so helpful!

If interested in learning more about how frogs and toads directly relate to the health of your environment, your neighborhood, and your wetlands additional resources are below.

Resources

Frog & Toad Surveying, Friends of The Rouge (FOTR)

Rouge River Watershed Amphibian Assessment, Rouge River Advisory Council,

Froggy Voice by Bingle

Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project, Alliance of the Rouge Communities

2020 Frog & Survey Results, FOTR

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Saturday, March 20, 2021

Reviewing The Gift of Pandora Jewelry

I thought I would review Pandora jewelry here and find out why giving the gift of Pandora is always going to be appreciated by those Pandora lovers that you know.

Pandora Jewelry Review - Pandora bracelets and Pandora beads are a great gift idea

Pandora Jewelry - Leather Bracelet & Silver Bracelet

I first became aware of Pandora in the early 2000s when they started to open their concept stores. My sister-in-law & a couple of my nieces were really enamored with the customized Pandora bracelets and it made gift buying for them as easy as picking a bead you thought they'd like!

At my workplace, there were so many people sporting Pandora bracelets it, personally, put me off having one myself. However, when my daughter was given a Pandora bead on a chain to wear as a necklace I started to change my mind.

Cat Pandora Charms on Amazon

I have written about my journey into Pandora charms which began in 2011 before - read all about it on Wizzley. My daughter got her first Pandora jewelry in 2011 and the charms are still being put on her Birthday/Christmas list, in fact as she's now a cat mom she got a beautiful cat charm from one of her friends for her birthday.

The introduction image is of my two Pandora bracelets - the original one I talk about in my Wizzley article, a leather bracelet and a beautiful silver one that my daughter brought me a few years ago.

I love the fact that you can totally customize your Pandora jewelry which is probably why it continues to be so popular.

The Pandora bracelet continues to be one of the most popular pieces that people buy the charms for, but they do also offer rings and necklaces that are also amazing.

Buying Pandora Jewelry Online

The other thing that I have noticed over the years is how more and more you can purchase your Pandora jewelry online. You can purchase them through Pandora themselves or through Amazon.

When purchasing online you'll notice that there are a number of other companies that sell charms which can fit on Pandora. The majority of people I know do NOT appreciate getting other charms so if you are looking for a gift you might want to be careful.

Do you have any Pandora jewelry? They are the third largest jewelry company in the world so as a gift idea I would say they deserve a big thumbs up.

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Friday, March 19, 2021

Refrigerator Garage Kit Review - Garage Freezer Not Freezing Help

If your garage freezer doesn't stay cold enough for frozen food, you may need a refrigerator garage kit.

We found out the hard way this past winter, that when the temperature outside gets cold, the freezer in our refrigerator/freezer located in our garage, stopped maintaining a freezing temperature. All of our frozen food thawed out and had to be thrown away. This may seem baffling, but the newer refrigerator models have a different type of temperature control than our trustworthy "never die" refrigerators and freezers from bygone days.

In spite of appearance, there is only one thermostat in a refrigerator-freezer. It is located in the refrigerator. The temperature control slider in your freezer is not a thermostat. It will not turn on the compressor motor. Therefore, everything is controlled by the temperature of the refrigerator. When it is cold, the refrigerator stays cool enough that the compressor motor doesn't cycle on, which means the freezer stops freezing and frozen food thaws. (For a thorough description, view the video featured below)

New, power saving technology drives a dagger into the heart of reliable durability once again! Therefore, we must take counter measures to bring life back into our everyday needed appliances. I need my garage freezer every day!

The Refrigerator Garage Kit

After doing a bit of research, we found a garage kit for our refrigerator freezer. We were fortunate that the kit will work in our Frigidaire refrigerator. It is my understanding, the kit doesn't work in all models, so be sure you check for your model before you purchase a garage kit. There may be a different garage kit made specifically for your refrigerator model.

Be sure to remove all of the glass shelves in the refrigerator before you start the installation. Plus, unplug the refrigerator.

Installing the refrigerator garage kit isn't hard, but it may seem intimidating at first glance. I have featured the video below to take the angst out of the installation. You will find tons of helpful tips and instruction in this video. This is a must watch video before you start the refrigerator garage kit installation.

What You Need to Install a Refrigerator Garage Kit

In addition to the actual garage kit, the guy in the video shared a few tool tips that make this job easier. The "secret" tool that he used in the video is a telescoping magnetic grabber. Even if you don't plan to install a refrigerator garage kit, that tool is a tool we all need in our tool box. You will also need light once the fridge is unplugged. My personal favorite tool suggestion was the magnetic dish for holding the screws! I might need 3 or 4 of those. They would be handy in the garage, kitchen, and in my craft room.

5303918301 - OEM Upgraded Replacement Refrigerator Garage KitCheck Price Slim 25” Durable Telescoping Magnetic Grabber/Retrieving MagnetCheck Price Titan 11061 Mini Magnetic Parts Tray, 4-1/4"Check Price Go Green Power Inc. (GG-36725) 16/3 25' Portable Hand LampCheck Price

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Computer Chair Mat Review

Images of chair mats for computer chairs

Computer Chair Mats

An office chair mat for your computer or office chair on wheels is a necessity whether you have carpet or a non-carpeted surface.

Many companies manufacture chair mats for the precise purpose of protecting your carpet from snags or your wood or tile floors from scratches. The mats also allow your office chair casters to move easily while offering the described protection.

I have used several brands over the years, and they have all worked well. The one I am featuring today is the AiBob Office Chair Mat.

Features:

Made from long-life pure polyethylene that is BPA and phthalalate free for a healthy indoor environment.
Surface allows your office chair to move easily, but has enough grip to maintain controlled rolling so your chair does not skid around.
The surface of the mat is strong and sturdy, so your chair’s wheels glide easily.
Provides good protection for your hardwood floors and carpeted floors.

Mats for Carpets and for Floors

AiBob Chair Mat for Carpets

Version for Carpets: The floor mats available for carpets work well on low pile carpet floors. Designed to allow effortless movement of office chair wheels while it protects your low pile carpets without leaving indentations.

Image showing nubs on back of Computer Chair Mat to hold to carpeting

The mat designed for carpets has nubs on the back to hold the mat in place.

Office Chair Mat for Floors

Version for Hard Floors: Designed to protect flooring from scratches and dust. Works well on hardwood, tile, laminate, vinyl, concrete, and linoleum. This mat provides good protection for your hard floors.

Summary

The AiBob Office Chair Mat is rated #16 (mats for floors) and #18 (mats for carpet). Also, the AiBob mat for carpets is listed as Amazon's Choice.

The mat comes rolled, so needs to be flattened a bit before using. The only complaint registered by reviewers is a strong chemical smell when the mat first arrives. The smell dissipates faster if aired for awhile outside.

Ghost Chair

Now for a fun personal story regarding my computer office chair sitting on my chair mat.

GHOST CHAIR

One summer 5 years ago, after visiting my son & family in Iowa, I ended up bringing my grandson Ryan (then age 14) back to Georgia with me for a visit. It was nice having company on the drive home and delightful to have the companionship of my teenage grandson. We did a lot of sightseeing in the Savannah, GA area and many trips to the beach and to my apartment complex pool. In the evenings we played a lot of card games.

One night, while we were playing Monopoly Deal, I happened to glance into my home office which I could view across the hall from the dining room table. I noticed that my computer chair had moved from my computer desk near the window nearly all the way across to the door of the room. Very strange. I got up and returned the chair to the mat, wondering how the chair had moved by itself. I wondered if because all the wheels happened to be in a straight line a vibration of some sort had caused the chair to slide off the mat and end up stopping on the rug several feet away.

Ryan and I tried to figure out a reason for this occurrence, but came up with nothing. Later, the same thing happened. This time, I turned two of the wheels on the chair to hopefully hold it in place. A few days later, the same thing happened. The chair moved half a dozen times in the next couple of weeks and we never did find a reason for it. By that time, we had begun to call it the “Ghost Chair”.

At the end of the month-long visit, Ryan and I drove to Kentucky – a half-way point for both us and his parents - to return him home. We stayed overnight in a motel before going our separate ways and that night, out to dinner together, I related to my son & daughter-in-law the story of the Ghost Chair. Afterwards, Ryan finally admitted that HE was the reason behind the chair's movement which he accomplished whenever I left the room! It was all a teenage practical joke and 'grandma' never suspected. Ryan had succeeded in looking completely innocent the whole time. LOL. We all had a good laugh over it and it has since become a favorite family story. 😄

Chair Mats for Computer Chairs reviewed by

Wednesday Elf.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Olaplex N°0 Intensive Bond Building and N°3 Hair Perfector Review

I have tried dozens of top-rated hair care products over the years, including pricy salon and luxury brands, that have promised to restore the appearance of my aging, dry, dull, breakage-prone hair. While many have helped to some degree, the only ones so far that have truly delivered on that promise are Olaplex N°0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment paired with Olaplex N°3 Hair Perfector. Thanks to the company’s patented bond building technology that repairs and strengthens damaged hair and improves their elasticity, using this dynamic duo just once a week prior to shampooing, conditioning, drying, and styling with my usual products has helped my tresses look nearly as smooth, shiny, soft, and frizz-free as they do after a salon visit.

Olaplex N°0 + N°3 The Perfect Pair for Damaged Hair

This dynamic duo from Olaplex is an at-home version of the famous salon treatment

Olaplex N°0 and N°3 Have Transformed My Damaged Hair

I have always worn my hair long. In my teens and twenties, my locks were smooth, silky, and frizz-free, even in hot and humid weather. After four decades of being color treated, bleached blonde for highlights, and styled with heated styling tools, however, the cumulative damage has left my tresses dull, dry, frizzy, and prone to breakage. I also have more and more gray hair, which is coarser, drier, more brittle, and more fragile, since the scalp’s sebaceous glands slow down their production of sebum (oil) that helps keep strands from drying out around the same time the number of cells producing melanin (pigment) diminishes.

The Olaplex N°0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment primer with Olaplex N°3 Hair Perfector made a remarkable difference in the appearance and texture of my mane after just one use, and I’m seeing even greater improvement with consistent weekly use, thanks to the cumulative repair and strengthening benefits of Olaplex’s bestselling product duo. My hair feels softer and silkier, and looks smoother and less frizzy, than it has in many years. It’s also stronger and less prone to breakage, and I’m quite happy to see fewer and fewer strands relocating from my head to my hairbrush!

The Patented, Bond-Building Molecule That Revolutionized Professional Hair Care Products and Services

Olaplex was born when the company’s founder teamed up with two UC Santa Barbara scientists, who discovered a new, single molecule, bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, that works from inside hair strands. Thanks to this groundbreaking active ingredient, their proprietary, patented active chemistry allows the Olaplex professional salon treatments and companion products for at-home maintenance to work at a molecular level from within the damaged strands. Unlike traditional salon treatments and products that temporarily mask the damage, Olaplex finds and repairs broken disulphide bonds to strengthen the hair and improve elasticity.

The Olaplex standalone treatment is a salon service that pairs the company’s two flagship, professional-use-only products (Olaplex N°1 Bond Multiplier and N°2 Bond Perfector) to repair existing damage and improve the hair’s strength and elasticity. This proprietary, patented bond building treatment repairs all types of hair damage, whether caused by chemical factors (e.g., coloring, bleaching, perms, chemical relaxers, keratin treatments), thermal factors (e.g., blow dryers, curling irons, flat irons, hot rollers), mechanical factors (e.g., brushing, friction, tugging, pulling on wet hair), or environmental factors (e.g., sunlight/UV exposure, humidity, extremely hot or cold weather conditions, pollution).

Salons can also add Olaplex to any type of lightening, bleaching, or coloring services (or use it as a perm prep) to mitigate their damaging effects and decrease the hair’s porosity.

Top hair salons and celebrity stylists, as well as their famous clients (including Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, Drew Barrymore, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Julianne Hough, to name just a handful) have raved about Olaplex, fueling a social media buzz that turned the once-small startup from a dark horse into one of the global professional hair care market’s key players.

The brand's innovative technology was so disruptive to the industry that L'Oréal, the world's largest beauty company, went so far as to essentially steal the formula for Olaplex N°1 (which contains the largest proportion of bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate) and use the stolen intellectual property to develop competing products for three of its own professional hair care brands, L'Oréal Professionnel, Redken, and Matrix! L'Oréal was found guilty of misappropriation of trade secrets and patent infringement, and Olaplex was awarded $91 million in damages. The damages awarded were later amended to $53.5 million.

Olaplex No.0 and Olaplex No.3 hair treatment products

Olaplex's "perfect pair" for repairing damaged hair!

N°0 + N°3: A "Lite" Consumer Version of the Professional Olaplex Standalone Treatment?

The professional products used in the Olaplex salon treatments, the N°1 Bond Multiplier and N°2 Bond Perfector, contain the highest concentrations of bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate and deliver the maximum repair and strengthening benefits.

The products I have been using, Olaplex N°0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment and Olaplex N°3 Hair Perfector, are considered the "hero products" for at-home maintenance between salon treatments. Both products contain significantly more bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate than any of the other consumer products (N°4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo, N°5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner, N°6 Bond Smoother, and N°7 Bonding Oil), which are more nice-to-haves rather than must-haves.

Olaplex introduced N°0, which it calls "a professional-inspired treatment that primes hair for deeper repair," has the highest dose of patented Olaplex technology in any of the take-home products. Designed to be used as "the first step in a two-part system with N°3 Hair Perfector," it rebuilds hair bonds, strengthens, and protects hair integrity. The N°0 "acts as an intensive repair booster, working in tandem [with N°3] to receive your most intense repair" and delivering "68% more repair & 3x stronger hair" after a single use when used together as a two-part system. According to the consumer website FAQ, "OLAPLEX technology works best when the product is wet in the hair. No.0 is a watery liquid that will dry quickly. Using No.3 over it keeps the hair damp, so both products can continue to work during the [at-home treatment] process."

Given the similarity of the product names and the characterization of N°0 as "a professional-inspired treatment that primes hair for deeper repair," I think this new primer was created to work with N°3 as a "lite" consumer version of the professional treatment, with N°0 and N°3 being used at home very similarly to the way N°1 Bond Multiplier and N°2 Bond Perfector, respectively, are used at the salon.

Even Without a Professional Olaplex Salon Treatment, a Weekly at-Home N°0 + N°3 Two-Part Treatment Can Deliver Impressive Results

The primary purpose of doing a weekly Olaplex N°0 + N°3 two-step treatment at home may be to maintain the benefits of the professional treatments between salon visits. However, I and many others have found that even without having had an Olaplex salon treatment with the full-strength, professional products, the weekly at-home, two-step treatment can still produce unprecedented improvements in the smoothness, strength, and elasticity of our tresses.

I would love to get the full, professional Olaplex salon treatment experience someday. In the meantime, however, I'm thrilled with how well these two consumer products perform together synergistically to repair, strengthen, de-frizz, and restore elasticity to my brittle, overstressed locks.

Note: Amazon Luxury Beauty is one of the authorized online retailer for Olaplex N°0, Olaplex N°3, and the rest of the brand's consumer products, which are also good for keeping healthy hair strong and resilient.

Olaplex No. 0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment + No. 3 Hair Perfector Product Review written by Margaret Schindel